Tag Archives: Peyton Manning

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So what if Cam Newton likes to dance in end zone?

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I need to get out more . . . I guess.

All this discussion about a professional football quarterback and whether criticism of him is based on his race has gone way over my head.

The QB in question is Cam Newton of the Carolina Panthers. He’s going to play in a big football game Sunday. The Super Bowl. He’ll be facing another pretty good quarterback, Peyton Manning of the Denver Broncos.

So what’s the big deal?

I keep hearing about Newton’s end zone antics after he takes part in a touchdown for the Panthers. He’s a bit of a show off, or so I’m led to believe.

So what? The National Football League is full of guys who like to dance, strut and carry on.

Personally, I prefer that they not do such things. Remember when Earl Campbell or Bo Jackson would score touchdowns? They’d hand the ball to the official and go back to the sideline and accept salutes from their teammates. Someone once said — maybe it was Vince Lombardi — that football players should act “as if they’ve done this before” when they score touchdowns.

As for whether Cam Newton, a Heisman Trophy winner at Auburn University, should do it . . . well, it doesn’t matter one damn bit to me whether a black guy does it or white guy does it.

It must have something to do with the position he plays. Are quarterbacks not supposed to be, oh, emotional? Is there some unwritten code of conduct for these guys that prohibits them from carrying on? I’m unaware of any such behavioral mandate.

I suppose all this discussion about a particular athlete’s on-field conduct betrays a sad truth, which is that we haven’t come as far along as we had hoped regarding issues involving race.

All that said . . .

I am not a particular fan of Newton, but it has nothing at all to do with his behavior on the field. It has everything to do with the fact that he led Auburn to a national college championship victory over the Oregon Ducks.

But if he dances and prances after scoring a touchdown on Sunday, that’s fine. I wish he wouldn’t do it, but it’s not the kind of thing that’s going to make me angry.

 

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Clues to Bronco Super Bowl collapse revealed

I have discovered the reason for the shocking collapse this past Sunday by the Denver Broncos at the Super Bowl.

Get set for this stunner.

It’s the Sports Illustrated jinx. The jinx did in the Broncos, just as certainly as it has torpedoed other teams and individual athletes over many decades of the vaunted sports magazine’s publication.

You know about the SI jinx, yes? It’s known as the kiss of proverbial death for any team or individual athlete who graces the cover prior to a big sporting event. You’re on the cover and you’re bound to lose. The jinx is infamous in sports and media circles.

The Broncos were featured on SI’s cover not once prior to The Big Game, but twice, for criminy sakes!

The Jan. 27 edition featured full-page photo of future Hall of Fame quarterback Peyton Manning. This was SI’s Super Bowl preview edition. I cannot recall how the magazine called the game. Doesn’t matter. The Seahawks came to play, while the Denver Broncos, well, didn’t.

Then we had the previous week’s SI cover. Who do you suppose graced that page? None other than Denver wide receiver Wes Welker, the Texas Tech University standout who played several seasons for the New England Patriots before joining Manning and the Broncos this year.

It was as if SI wanted to ensure that they doomed the Broncos by putting them on the cover on consecutive weeks prior to the Super Bowl.

What’s most amazing of all is that I haven’t heard much — if any — mention of this phenomenon biting the Broncos in the backside.

I think I’ve scored a scoop.

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Hope for thrilling game goes ‘poof’ on first snap

Well, I watched most of the Super Bowl, managed to skip the halftime show because I don’t particularly like Bruno Mars or the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

I had hoped for a thriller, thinking in advance the Seattle Seahawks’ defense would win the day over the high-powered Denver Broncos’ offense. I guess I was half right.

Seattle’s defense was all that it was billed as being: tough, relentless, opportunistic, aggressive … what am I missing here?

I didn’t expect the Seahawks’ offense to be so strong.

Maybe the omen was delivered on the game’s first play from scrimmage, when the Denver center snapped the ball over Peyton Manning’s head, resulting in a safety for Seattle, and setting a record for the quickest score in Super Bowl history.

So, you might be wondering: What does a shellacking like this do to Peyton Manning’s place as one of the greatest pro quarterbacks in history? Not a single thing, as the announcers Joe Buck and Troy Aikman (no slouch himself as a QB) pointed out.

Manning will go down as a Top Five quarterback when his career is over.

Agreed. Dan Marino’s failure to win a Super Bowl didn’t diminish his standing as an all-timer. Besides, Manning’s already won one of those Lombardi trophies, back when he played for the Indy Colts.

The Super Bowl has produced a number of thrillers over the years. This one didn’t make the grade.

Too bad. Hey, maybe next year?